I agree, and even if they aren’t feasible for most of us now, the technology will improve. After all, the first gasoline powered cars were nothing to write home about either.
First, where will the power come from?
Second, consider this:
1959 Henney Kilowatt
Range: 40 miles
Price: 3,600 (or $26,201.06 in 2009 dollars.)
2011 Chevy Volt
Range: 40 miles
Price: $41,000
The Volt’s speed is higher, but basically we haven’t moved forward much in 50 years, and the thing costs 160% what its predecessor does. Compare that to a bottom basement Mustang...$2,368 in ‘65, $22,125 in 2011...and straight inflation would have the car costing $16,204.73. Not only is that closer, but I think it’s fair to say that a 2011 Mustang performs better on less fuel.
Based on the performance of other technologies, an electric car should do much better than its predecessors and give you more capability per dollar, but we’re moving in the opposite direction.
...”After all, the first gasoline powered cars were nothing to write home about either.”
There’s a huge difference between the current perceived usefulness of the technology presented in the form of the Volt and the formation of the automobile mass-production industry.
Because it is an automobile, the Volt is for the most part, still just another car.
110 years ago, just about any automobile that could be built and driven was something to write home about just as the Wright Brothers did when they got their first kites off the ground.
In WWI, the world was introduced to fighter planes, tanks and motorcycles. Nothing like that will happen with Volt technology. In fact, it’s the last thing you’d want or need on the battlefield unless you consider their potential as dumb bombs to be dropped from large military cargo and transport aircraft.